Bioscape is an eco-friendly social game aiming to measure everyone’s CO2 emissions in an easy, helpful, accessible way. Nowadays, in the news especially, we hear a lot of buzzwords referring to climate change and the dreadful impact is having both on our planet and humanity itself. From ‘loss of biodiversity’ and ‘degradation of ecosystem’ to ‘sustainable living’, these concepts do not often mean much to common citizens. In such a context, we identified one of these tricky notions, ‘carbon footprint’ – namely the total emissions produced by a single individual – and we asked ourselves how to make it accessible to everyone. Bioscape answers this question, aiming to provide users with a tool to clearly measure their carbon footprint in manifest and quantifiable terms. The game will be integrated on Facebook. This is for several reasons. Firstly, we don’t want our users to download a specific app, as the game can be easily accessed through a social platform and is built upon the existing friendships and connections of the user. Secondly, the game is likely to be more engaging and appealing if easily accessible and shareable with close friends. Social platforms are exceptionally good at zeroing geographical boundaries and engaging users. Indeed, players will be incentivized to consume less CO2 in order to be successful in the game. The goal is ultimately to encourage everyone to behave better and consume less by spurring competition among players.  Concretely, the game has been designed as follows, aiming to engage users in a simple, entertaining, and effective way. As soon as the player gets access on the platform on Facebook, he/she is required to create a personal avatar.
This fictional character will live in the user’s real city (through a GPS feature integrated with the game), where he/she will come in contact with friends and other players. The game occurs in real time. Every day, each player can play out his/her character’s life by carrying out interactions with other users, travelling, working, going shopping, playing games, visiting the city. Every time an action is carried out, an indicator will make the player aware of his/her CO2 emissions. While exploring and living the city, each player can engage in three different real-time activities, all linked to specific places on the city map.
For instance, hopping on the bus, the subject matter of the game will concern the consumption of different means of transport.
All the players will be able to reduce their carbon usage for the day through daily activities, as they will be assigned points or ‘footprints’ every time they win a game or successfully take part into an activity. The first game will be played in ‘pair-mode’ or ‘duo-mode’. A user will challenge someone either coming from a random selection or his/her friend list. Whoever wins the game wins a point. The second type is played solo in “mission mode” and will require the user to complete an assigned task in a set time. An example could be: “Stop illegal deforestation in the forest nearby your house to win a footprint”. If the user succeeds, he/she will earn a point and receive a notification indicating the amount of CO2 emissions that a failure could have cost. The third and last type is played in “challenge mode” and requires the involvement of the player in real life. The game will ask the user to challenge his/her bad habits in favor of positive ones. A real-life example could be: “Take public transports to go to work instead of your car!” If the player does it, he/she will earn one footprint by uploading a picture of her action. If by 8 pm the user has completed all the three actions, he/she could take part in a HQ trivia-style Quiz that will test his/her knowledge about carbon emissions and environmental sustainability. By answering 10 multiple-choice questions correctly (three options and ten seconds per question), the user will have the chance to win real money. The prizes will be provided by carefully selected partners, such as Le Marie de Paris, Sciences Po or SNCF. Bioscape will actively try to involve associations, universities and institutions to help us spread our message and sponsor the game in name of their corporate social responsibility. Our daily consumption habits cause substantial impacts on the environment, yet because people cannot see the effects they do not change their behaviors. The ambiguity of our carbon footprint is a problem, and therefore the motivation behind the creation of Bioscape. The goal of Bioscape is to help conceptualize people’s daily carbon footprint emissions in an easy, fun and accessible way. Through the creation of this user-friendly game, users will be able to visualize their contribution to carbon emissions in a way that is meaningful, and hopefully will encourage them to change their habits. By spurring competition amongst players to consistently choose to consume less CO2, our hope is that similar actions will be translated into the daily lives of users. To be considered successful in the game players are incentivized to consumer less CO2, therefore encouraging everyone to make conscious decisions. For example, if traveling, a player will encounter multiple means of transportation, each of which will have an amount of CO2 that will be emitted if chosen. In every scenario the amount of CO2 emissions will be representative of a real-life, accurate figure. Our intent is to make the game as meaningful as possible, and by measuring carbon footprint through precise data calculations the game has the potential to become very impactful. Many solutions to this problem have been attempted, but they are not user-friendly as they don't allow users to visualize the carbon emission issue in a way that is meaningful to them and that might encourage them to change their habits. A solution that doesn’t elicit a clear representation of carbon emissions that can be applied to daily life will not succeed. The aim of Bioscape is to allow users to conceptualize their carbon footprint in not only a game setting, but also in everyday life. By doing so, our hope is to create a future generation of conscious consumers. As both conceptualizing and measuring the carbon footprint are not easy tasks, there will be challenges in the implementation of Bioscape. Our primary obstacle will be the collection of data representative of carbon emissions. Although data regarding CO2 emissions exists, those available are not often up-to-date and there is no one scale that is clearly representative. Given this, creating data calculations based on all the consumption options of users will pose as a challenge. Additionally, given that it is very complicated to conceptualize the carbon footprint it will be hard to find a way to not only bring awareness about the subject, but also to reveal its importance to individuals from all countries and backgrounds. Therefore it is imperative we create a simple, yet interesting and impactful application in order to attract users. As our main target and the majority of society spend a large portion of time of mobile devices, we have chose to create an application. Through this channel, we are able to easily reach our target and communicate effectively. A mobile device application allows users to receive updates and notifications so that they are constantly reminded of the game and have easy accessibility. Additionally, we are able to provide continuous revisions to the platforms. We will be able to avoid disadvantages and risks by 1) incentivizing players through constant updates and new challenges; 2) being visually appealing and topical within our demographic; 3) keeping up with technological updates and promote social change; 4) ensuring easy access to our platform. In a society with an ever-decreasing attention span, it will be a challenge to make the game appealing throughout a long variable of time and to have direct benefits beyond the initial impact. The application could possibly suffer from the so-called 'Pokemon Go Effect’, fading away quickly in the minds of the players after short-lived fame. Therefore, a key aspect for the success of the project is that our players find the game 'cool' in the long run. We don't want to be categorized as 'hipsters', having our brand and scope misinterpreted or misunderstood. In the end, the most problematic aspect could be if players did not put into practice what they achieved in the game. It is therefore imperative to get our aims and messages through in the clearest possible way. our mission The destruction of the planet has become increasing inevitable, however, it is still not irreversible. With the implementation of Bioscape, our hope is to help in stopping biodiversity destruction and ecosystems degradation. Although changing human’s daily behavior is only a partial solution to the overall problem, we believe that it is a stepping-stone in reversing the damage done to the environment.
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